The present disclosure relates to a drive transmitting unit configured to removably attached to an apparatus body and an image forming apparatus including this.
An electro-photographic image forming apparatus includes a mechanism for transmitting a rotational force to a member rotating centering on a shaft.
For instance, the image forming apparatus includes a plurality of gears (gear train) for transmitting a rotational force of a driving motor to a fixing roller of a fixing unit. A gear (pinion gear) fitted to a driving shaft of the driving motor rotates a driving-side coupling gear through a plurality of gears. The driving-side coupling gear rotates a fixing-side coupling gear fixed to an end of the fixing roller.
The fixing roller requires a large torque for its rotation because the fixing roller is in pressure contact with a press roller. Accordingly, a large load is applied to both of the driving-side and fixing-side coupling gears. Due to that, it is desirable to periodically replace the respective coupling gears. However, it takes time to replace the respective coupling gears in the image forming apparatus described above.